This invention pertains to structures, systems, and procedures for the lifting, transfer, and transport of individuals requiring assistance.
Persons with disabilities represent 20% of the population of the United States alone or, presently, 54 million people. This is a growing percentage due to the world-wide advances in life-saving techniques and medical technology. Consequently, seriously injured or disabled persons now live productive lives yet need to have assistive equipment to enhance their quality of life.
This invention arises from the recognition of a need of an individual to lift and to transfer her 96 year old invalid grandmother. The attending granddaughter, a young woman who was herself pregnant, could not easily and safely accomplish her tasks of lifting, changing, bathing, transferring, and transporting the patient using an existing movable floor-supported cantilever-type patient lift device. That lift device tended to dig its front wheels into the bedroom carpeting when being moved and got in the way of the attendant as she lifted the patient. It also threatened to injure the attendant as she moved the patient because the patient was suspended in a sling from the end of the device""s cantilevered lifting beam. The patient felt extremely insecure during those times when the patient was supported only in the lift device.
This invention addresses needs of the kind described above, and the deficiencies and limitations of existing products. Broadly, this invention provides a personal transporter which can be used to lift a person, to transfer a person from one place of support to a different adjacent place of support, and to move a person from place to place. One of the structural aspects of the invention is a personal movement system (xe2x80x9cPMSxe2x80x9d) and a patient positioning system (xe2x80x9cPPSxe2x80x9d) which together constitute a presently preferred form of the invention for use with persons. Portions of the PMS aspect of this invention can be used in an expandable utility lifter (xe2x80x9cEVLxe2x80x9d) which has advantage and utility in lifting and transporting things other than people in home, commercial and industrial contexts.
The PMS provides a wide range of flexibility and safety in the lifting, transferring and transporting of a physically disabled person to and from a bed, wheel-chair, toilet or bath, vehicle, swimming pool, spa, room, floor, etc. A major component of the PMS aspect of the invention is a lifter/transfer/transporter (LTT) unit. The LTT is a laterally expansible structural frame having planar A-frame type legs which can be positioned over a bed to lift a person and to transfer that person to a wheel chair, for example. The LTT can be compacted or reduced in width from an extended state, say a 7xc2xd foot (229 cm.) span, to a minimized state, say a 2xc2xd foot (76 cm.) width, for transporting the person from place to place. The weight of a person supported by the LTT is centered, in most instances, within a rectangular pattern of four wheels. The PPS preferably is used in connection with the PMS to provide capabilities heretofore available only through the use of a combination of separate products currently available to the disabled or bedridden.
The PPS is an articulated patient support device which does not rely upon the use of web-type slings commonly used with patient lifters now available in the marketplace. The PPS can have a range of supportive configurations. It can be horizontal and serve as a stretcher. It can be arranged into various seat shapes or configurations. It can be slanted to assist in standing. The PPS structure, when combined with a special mattress arrangement, can become part of the patient""s bed and allows the patient to be readily turned, lifted, seated, transferred and transported by the PMS.
The structures, systems and procedures of this invention provide the following features, benefits and advantages: multifunction capacity in lift, transfer, and transport of the disabled; collapsible vehicle supporting a person from a wide over-bed state (say 7xc2xd feet) to a narrow width (say 2xc2xd feet) for movement through a doorway; safe lift and transfer of a person from bed to wheelchair; the caregiver is not required to support any significant portion of the patient""s weight; easy transport of a patient from a location of patient pick-up to an adjacent location; the patient has enhanced positional security and stability during transport; patient weight is centered within four wheels of a supporting structure which facilitates transfer and transport functions; self-contained battery-powered lift and transfer operations; dual strap, dual-ball screw lifting hoist with separate motors for lift and transfer functions; wall and vehicle brackets provide enhanced flexibility and utilities; seat structures allow articulated and controlled movement of the patient when lifting and transferring the patient. Additional features and advantages of the invention are developed in the following descriptions of the PMS, the PPS, and of a form of the invention useful for easily and safely moving a person into and out of a passenger seat in an aircraft.
This invention provides an apparatus for transporting a person and includes a frame movable on supporting wheels connected to the frame. The frame includes a horizontal beam in an upper portion of the frame. A reversible motor-driven winch mechanism is supported by the beam. The winch mechanism is operable to take in and pay out at least one flexible load carrying element which ends at a coupling by which the element can be releasably connected in load supporting relation to a carrier for supporting a person. The apparatus includes positioning means cooperable between the frame and the carrier supporting a person for holding the carrier and the person in a desired relation to the frame.
Another aspect of the invention provides an apparatus for transporting a person in which the apparatus includes a variable-length beam and a pair of leg assemblies supporting the beam horizontally at a selected elevation. A motor-driven winch mechanism is supported by the beam and is movable along the beam between the leg assemblies. One of the leg assemblies is selectively movable toward and away from the other leg assembly during load-supporting engagement of the one leg assembly with the beam.
A further aspect of the invention provides an apparatus for moving a person in which there is a frame which is movable on supporting wheels. A reversible motor-driven winch mechanism is supported in an upper location in the frame. The winch mechanism is operable to take in and pay out in synchronism at spaced locations in the winch a pair of flexible load carrying elements. Couplings are carried by the load carrying elements by which the elements can be releasably connected in load supporting relation to a carrier for supporting a person.
A still further aspect of this invention is a carrier for supporting a person in a hoist. The carrier comprises a fabric construction having back and seat portions which are disposable behind the back and under the buttocks and thighs of a person. A reinforced zone of the construction extends under the seat portion and upwardly from opposite sides of the seat portion to a height above the seat portion to about the waist of a person supported by the seat portion. The construction includes a pair of side flaps which are extendible from respective side edges of the back portion around the sides and across the front of a person supported by the seat portion to end margins. The flaps can be connected to each other at their end margins to at least partially enclose the torso of the person. A support strap is associated with each side flap. Each support strap is connectible with the corresponding end of the reinforced zone and can pass through a guide on the side of the corresponding flap to an upper end of the strap. The upper end of each strap carries a device by which the strap can be connected to the hoist and by which a person in the carrier can be raised and lowered by operation of the hoist.